Illinois dispensaries sold $36 million worth of recreational marijuana in March. Here’s how that stacks up to pre-coronavirus sales.

Illinois marijuana dispensaries sold almost $36 million worth of legal weed in March — a slight increase over February — even as the coronavirus pandemic shut down the state and people were ordered to stay at home.

Purchases by out-of-state residents comprised roughly one-quarter of sales, according to data from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which regulates dispensaries.

Since recreational sales started Jan. 1, Illinois dispensaries have sold roughly $110.2 million worth of legal weed. March sales were up slightly over February sales, which totaled about $35 million, and down from the $39.2 million in revenue during January.

Dispensary operations were complicated last month, as Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered nonessential business to shut down and people to stay home to beat back the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

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Dispensaries were allowed to stay open, but had to figure out how to enforce social distancing in their stores, and keep people 6 feet apart. For some, that meant halting recreational sales or shutting down altogether. Others reduced the size of their sales floor to keep customers apart, or implemented preorder systems and curbside pickup.

Though the number of customers walking through the door has dropped at most marijuana shops, operators say those who do come spend more.

The average sale in Illinois through March 25 was up 13% over February, according to New Frontier Data, which tracks sales at more than 40 dispensaries in the state.

“People stocked up, just like they did for TP and booze and cans of beans," said Beau Whitney, founder and chief economist for Oregon-based business consulting company Whitney Economics. "Then they are using it, but they’re using it at a higher rate.”

People are staying home with little to do, and using marijuana, Whitney said. Additionally, anxiety levels are high surrounding the uncertainty with the coronavirus pandemic. Consumers often use marijuana to treat anxiety, and that is increasing demand.

The higher marijuana use balanced out the challenges dispensaries face in getting products to customers during the pandemic, keeping sales revenues essentially flat from February to March, said Bethany Gomez, managing director of cannabis research firm Brightfield Group.

“The fact that March held is a strong indication of the future longevity of the industry,” she said.

But there are still concerns about the impact coronavirus is having. March had two extra buying days, and Gomez said that without the pandemic, sales revenues would likely have been higher.

Additionally, the Illinois market is still facing ongoing product shortages as the state’s limited growing facilities work to scale up and produce more marijuana. Some relief was expected as craft grow facilities opened throughout the state, but the deadline for those applications has been pushed back due to the coronavirus.